Figure It Out [Phan]

[7]

Dan got a notification on his phone. A Snapchat alert, from Phil.

"amazingphil: hey dan" it read. He opened the message and shot him a reply.

danisnotonfire: It's been five minutes. What do you want from me?

Dan sent the response and put his phone back in his pocket. His phone buzzed again, almost instantly. "Is Phil waiting on me to respond?" Dan thought.

amazingphil: salty much?

Dan shook his head and replied.

danisnotonfire: Well you're not talking to me just to talk to me. What do you want?

Phil replied almost immediately again.

amazingphil: we need to find a time to work on our project. it's like half our grade. we gotta at least get started.

danisnotonfire: Fine. Are you busy today afterschool? We could walk to my house and work on it.

amazingphil: yeah let's do that

Dan didn't say anything and neither did Phil. They both just checked their phone intermittently for notifications from one another they might have missed.

***

"How am I going to tell Clarke that I have to skip hanging out with him to be with Dan?" Phil thought. "Maybe he'll understand. It's not my choice. Maybe he'll get that! But, then again... It's Clarke. That testosterone pumped monkey doesn't understand a thing."

Phil was worrying about that all period. Then all of next period. Basically Phil was worried about it the entire day. Phil didn't want himself, or Dan, to get hurt by Clarke.

Phil decided that it would be best to make sure Clarke doesn't find out. So Phil didn't say anything. Phil didn't say anything when Clarke yelled at Dan some more that day. Phil didn't say anything when Clarke pushed Dan into a wall. ("Well that's new"). Phil didn't say anything when Dan ran to the bathroom with tears in his eyes. Phil didn't do anything when that happened.

And Phil felt bad for it. For standing by as all of this happened. But Phil felt it was best, for both of them, if he just let it happen.

In the middle of a class, Phil's phone buzzed.

danisnotonfire: Meet me in the courtyard right after school ends.

amazingphil: sorry cant

danisnotonfire: What do you mean can't?

amazingphil: library instead

danisnotonfire: Fine. I don't get what's so bad about the courtyard but okay.

Phil put away his phone. Phil couldn't explain it to Dan. Not this way. Not today.

***

When the bell rang, Dan ran quickly from his class to his locker, then quickly to the library. He didn't want a last minute encounter with Clarke.

Dan was waiting in the library for Phil, listening to music. Dan didn't want any more of the world today. He was pushed by Clarke today. Pushed! Sure, it wasn't a hard push, it didn't leave any bruises, but it meant that Clarke would do anything to hurt Dan.

Dan saw Phil walk through the doors of the library. Dan met up with him.

"So... uh..." Dan said. "Let's go to my house now."

"Yeah." Phil said.

Phil followed Dan through the doors to the library. Dan continued straight, towards the courtyard, when Phil went through a different hallway that would take them to a back exit of the school. When Dan noticed that Phil wasn't behind him, he was more agitated than anything.

Dan found Phil, walking down one of the hallways. Not the one to the exit.

"Where the hell are you going?" Dan asked.

"To an exit." Phil said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Dan tilted his head with an annoyed look on his face. "Well no shit." Dan said. "That's not the exit we're going to be using."

"Why not?" Phil asked.

"Because we go through the courtyard. Fastest way." Dan said. "Oh, right. You have that thing with courtyards. Where you can't be in them."

"That's not it! I just think we should take... a different way." Phil said.

Dan shook his head. "You know what?" Dan said, very irritated. "I'm not in the mood to argue today. I had a shitty day and I want to just go home. We'll go your way."

"Okay." Phil said with a slightly sad tone.

And together they walked through a door to the school.